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#69805
05/13/2002 1:25 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
A town in south Arkansas, originally known as Chemin Couvert, for covered way, is now called Smackover. Are there other English-language place-names that have evolved from former names in other languages?
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#69806
05/13/2002 2:02 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Buffalo (NY) is supposed to have come from some French phrase but I tried googling it and came up blank. Lancy (sp?) Meadows in Nova Scotia (?) derives from the French name L'anse aux Meduse. Ironically (in the USn sense) the L'anse part means meadow and the Meduse part something else (jellyfish?).
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#69807
05/13/2002 2:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Dear Faldage,
It's in Newfoundland, it's where the Vikings landed 1000 years ago, and it's still spelled as you spelled it, L'Anse Aux Meadows. It's just said "LANCE oh MEdoze".
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#69808
05/13/2002 2:15 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
slithy,
I know I've posted these before, but you (and many others) were not here yet so I'll do it again. Newfoundland has lots of Anglicized names, many of them from French. One funny thing about is that often, the old spelling still survives. Some of my faves:
(spelled) Bay D'espoir (said) Bay Despair
(spelled) Pouch Cove (said) Pooch Cove
(spelled) Baie Verte (said) Bay Vurt
(spelled) Port Aux Basques (said) Port-uh-Bask
(spelled) Rencontre East (said) RONcontrEEST
(original spelling) Toulinguet (now spelled and pronounced) Twilingate
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#69809
05/13/2002 2:46 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Faldage: in looking up L'Anse aux Meadows, I thought "anse" meant neck, as in "anserine" =like a goose. But French dictionary say "anse"= cove
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#69810
05/13/2002 3:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
"anse"= cove
Ah, the perils of a junk drawer memory. I have this one with a note pinned to it that says Farley Mowatt, book about Vikings in America
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#69811
05/13/2002 9:49 PM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
How about DuBois, Pennsylvania...pronounced Doo Boys. [grimace]
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#69812
05/13/2002 10:58 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I think we did it before but
Elephant and Castle (yes it is a place)
is said to be a corruption of "Infanta de Castilla"
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#69813
05/13/2002 11:04 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
In 1614 Dutch explorer Capt. Cornelius Jacobsen Mey sailed around the tip of New Jersey into Delaware Bay. The cape was named in his honor, only it was later changed to Cape May.
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#69814
05/13/2002 11:09 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#69815
05/14/2002 12:19 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
Ah, the perils of a junk drawer memory.
Nay, faldage; say rather "the glory of a junk drawer memory". All praise.
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